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Sony Online Entertainment: Press Event, August 5-8, 2004
Right now I’m cruising at about 10,000 feet somewhere over Phoenix, AZ. How I got here (and what we’ve done this weekend) is something I’ve got to bore you with before I start spilling all of the details you are really interested in.
Sometime Tuesday afternoon Steve dropped me an email asking if I’d like to come out to San Diego for the weekend. Since my choices were either A. Work all weekend servicing loans on mobile homes in my Knoxville office or B. Take a free trip to one of the nicest cities in the world to visit a company that has been the focus of much of my time over the past 6 years, I chose option B.
But to fully understand exactly how great this trip was, I’ve got to go back to the beginning. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve got absolutely zero first hand experience in the realm of game design, coding, or any of several other ambiguous terms I could throw out regarding the Industry. I’m in Finance. I study money to make money. The gaming side has always been just another hobby.
Then I stumbled upon EQii.com one day back in 2003 and the long journey began. EQII is something we’ve all been following for a great deal of time. The type of game it is shaping up to be (and the type of community Ryan and Justin created) motivated me to take that one step further. In an attempt to appease you all, I’m going to cut to the chase and offer this: a little over a year later and 3 name-color changes later, I’m officially “the Press.” But in reality, I’m nothing more than a gamer who loves what he’s doing, and loves what he’s seeing come out of SOE these days. And for some odd reason, they chose to thank us (and get us to write these nice articles  ) with a trip to their offices to get a hands on look at EQII and some much appreciated face time with the talented team creating it.
So after replying to Steve’s email on Tuesday, SOE booked my flights out of Knoxville, hooked us up with a fantastic room at one of Arnold Palmer’s golf resorts in San Diego, and provided us with transportation to that sacred place known as SOE headquarters. (There was something else thrown in there about big steaks and beer, but I digress).
Something else you must also understand: I’ve never been on a plane before. I’ve traveled to most of the south eastern and north eastern US, but it’s always been via bus or one massive caravan of SUV’s. When you’re traveling to play baseball (and you don’t have a massive gaming company footing your bill), the accommodations aren’t quite as nice. So naturally there was a bit of trepidation in flying across the country for the very first time (especially as some one who has come of age in a time like ours). As you all know, I’m getting married in less than a month, and if I were killed in a plane crash, my fiancé would kick my arse.
So I weasel my way out of work early on Thursday, find a way to not come in on Friday, and make my way to our tiny Knoxville airport to board a plane not much bigger than the laptop I’m typing on right now. Woohoo. Hannar Stormwolf: big wuss.
But the light at the end of this proverbial tunnel was, of course, EverQuest II. I figured that alone would be worth risking certain death and any of a million other potential tragedies (like the fact that my in flight movies were “Jersey Girl” and “Mean Girls,” Yeah, thanks for the booking, Sean). I can oogle Jennifer Lopez and Lindsey Lohan just as much as anyone else, but when they start speaking I have to reach for the air sickness bag.
I landed in Houston early Thursday evening and spent a wonderful 15 minutes touring the city’s lovely airport, including state of the art restrooms and conveyor belt walkways. If any of you are planning on visiting an airport for your next vacation, may I suggest George Bush Intercontinental?
I board a much bigger plane on my way into San Diego and commence the 3 hour wait until I touch down and begin looking for the guy (Thomas Taylor) standing at the baggage claim with a giant “EverQuest” sign. I assure you, that’s a unique site in and of itself. And after 12 hours of sitting at the airport, I believe it was all Tom could to keep from beating random passersby with it. We then hopped in Tom’s Mustang and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Unfortunately for me, I had missed the day’s earlier “festivities” where unnamed fansite managers and what were reported to be “possible SOE employees” consumed copious amounts of frosty adult libations.
The next morning, we all boarded the bus to SOE HQ, and that’s where the fun really began. If any of you remember Anyuzer’s trip to SOE, you’ll remember the description he gave of their offices. My impressions were none the less, well, impressive. The parking lot itself is an adventure. I saw the famed "FIPPY" plates, as well as a great looking orange classic VW convertible Beetle with the license plate "KLICNIK." From the time you enter the door, it’s pretty clear that this is not your ordinary office. And I guess that is where the magic lies. This isn’t a place where people work to provide a boring service (like the place I work). I don’t often speak to people on the phone who are just extremely excited that I can explain to them their interest rates or set up a plan to pay off their mortgages early. For some reason, that just doesn’t get people going. But the guys at SOE wake up every morning (let’s just assume it is in the morning) and go to work to make a product that will hopefully entertain and excite people for years to come. If that’s not an exciting prospect, and one that would be a motivating force, I don’t know what is.
We were all ushered through a hallway covered with relics of EQLive fame; magazine covers, box art, promotional items and the like. We were all given official SOE Visitor Passes with the little guy from Planetside on it (what, no Firiona Vie? Do you guys know how your bread is buttered? ). Sean then took us into a side room filled with about 20 top of the line PC’s featuring a wide range of monitors from the 17” LCD Onyx and I played on to the 23” widescreen displays that some of the other folks got. Sure, there was the opportunity to feel a bit jealous there, but let’s face it. I would have gladly flown to San Diego to play EQII on an Etch-a-Sketch at this point.
We all took our seats, fired up Internet Explorer and made the obligatory “We’re playing EQII and you’re not” posts on our respective sites. Then something happened; a strange force entered the room. Onyx and I hadn’t seen it yet, but we could tell it was there. It was a force that nearly ripped a hole in the time space continuum.and ended humanity as we know it. There, at that very moment, Moorgard and Hangard stood in the same room. It was like a freaky scene in Back to the Future where Michael J. Fox had to avoid seeing his self, or risk destroying everything mankind held dear (except for the Delorean, of course. You can’t destroy those things). Really, it was exactly like that except that Moorgard and I look nothing alike, we aren’t related, he’s doing what he does as a professional with a fairly important job, and the work I do is realatively meaningless and at worst probably invokes the fear of a potential stalker in and around the SOE offices. (Hey, let’s hope I dispelled some of that belief on this trip, even though Sean did try to make sure I got some “alone” time with Steve before I left. I think that freaked both of us out just a bit more than we’d care to admit. Bad Sean, bad.) In any cases, it was a nice opportunity to meet Steve in person and thank him for the work he’s allowed all of us to do.
So the guys at SOE fire up our fresh “SOE Fansite” accounts in game and take down all of our names. We’re then transported into a scene that I’m sure most of us have seen 100 times by now, the EQII tutorial. While little if anything has changed from what we’ve seen before, seeing it in person and being able to control the action was something far more compelling than what I had previously expected. The game is absolutely beautiful; by far the best looking game I’ve ever played. And on the machine I was given, it ran flawlessly. Some of our machines varied in specs, but all were mid to high range gaming machines. If you own something that you would consider to be in that class, congratulations  .
After several hours of play time (which I don’t think I’ll describe here… I’m really not sure how much I can/need to reveal at this time), I can tell you this: no MMORPG I have ever played since the launch of EQLive (and boy have there been lots) has ever had the “feel” of EverQuest. That is, until now. From start up to camping out, this game absolutely reeks of Norrath. In the 7 or so hours I had access to the game on Friday, I was continuously wow’d (hehe) by an ever increasing level of depth and immersion. Within five minutes of reaching the isle of refuge, I think I probably saw more unique creatures than I did in the first two weeks I played SWG. Believe that.
Again, without getting specific, Onyx, myself, and Mark “Deathstryker” Norris of IGN Vault (along with several others) were able to see and feel the implementation of all of the concepts we’ve heard so much about. From locked encounters to instancing to the quest journal, it was all there, and all functioning (and well). Deathstryker played an Erudite Mage, Onyx a Half Elf Scout, and myself a High Elf Fighter. We teamed up to quest an adventure for several hours and progressed through the Isle of Refuge and on into our respective cities. I took the path to Qeynos along with Onyx, and Deathstryker checked out Freeport (*cough*sucks*cough*).
Again, pretty much the only thing I’m confident I can say without getting into too much trouble: this game, in its current state, is already fun. You can easily see the massive influence of EverQuest Live, as well as the nostalgic value of many of the sights within the game, but you can also see how much the genre has progressed since the original game. And right now, it’s all coming together in a package that is just too damn fun to check out. Heck, it was even fun to just sit and watch as some of the folks roamed around various areas I did not have access to.
About an hour into the play session, I looked to my right and noticed that the guy sitting two seats to my right was John Blakely. I think it was probably at that time when I recognized what a cool opportunity these guys were giving all of us; especially those of us who have not yet made it to FanFaire or any of the other SOE sponsored events. I’ve talked with John a few times online, but only for a bit of advice here and there. The opportunity we had next was probably one of the highlights of the day…
Blakely and other SOE devs then let us all move into one of their conference rooms to have a face to face discussion with the guys who actually make all of this magic happen. I wish I could share more of what went on in those sessions, but Onyx has all of our notes. Needless to say, it was both entertaining and educational (well, as educational as a discussion about EQII can be). Some of the things that just come to mind for me right now are the Heroic Opportunities, the Questing system, and some changes to the tradeskill system. Those, I think, are worth mentioning before Onyx returns (and by the way, Justin, hope you’re having just a wonderful time in Mexico while I’m cramped up on a 737 watching “Mean Girls”).
The Heroic Opportunity system is something that is going to add both a lot of choice and a lot of much needed complexity to the combat engine. It’s not complexity in the sense that the game itself is now more difficult to operate, or that players will now have a harder time figuring out how to function within the game’s mechanics. Instead, it is a system that increases the number of “right” and “wrong” decisions a player can make in combat. It provides a means for variation in the level of efficiency of a given group or player. It gives you a chance to become a fantastic player, or die off like one of quicker than a thread about Asheron’s Call 2 in our general gaming forum.
The combat wheel is the key to the heroic opportunity system. It allows players to chain together combinations of combat arts that will in turn lead to the potential use of a Heroic Opportunity. This does not mean that the game tells you what combat abilities should be used, and it does not imply that there is a set way to approach any single encounter. What it means is that players must learn to use their combat arts in a fashion that will mesh well with the arts of the other players in their group and that they will have to understand the encounter they are taking part in well enough to make an educated decision as to which Heroic Opportunity to pursue. Not all opening moves will lead to the same HO. Only the scout class has the potential to “shift” the heroic opportunity once the chain has begun.
On the subject of quests, we spoke briefly about the betrayal quests and the difficulty associated with them. You’ll be glad to know that the difficulty of this quest has been ratcheted up. There is some sort of finite limit on how many people may betray their city during the same day (what exactly that mechanic is was not disclosed). The difficulty of the quest is said to be quite high, requiring a group of players for some sections. It cannot be done solo. In addition, the player who is leaving his original city will have to go without a bank for the duration of the quest, and he cannot continue leveling until the quest is completed. You partake on this quest only once, and it may be done only immediately prior to your subclass choice. And if all of that was not enough to deal with, you’ll be hampered with a curse from the citizens of your original city. This design is to ensure that when you see a Dark Elf Paladin in Qeynos, you know that the character must have been going through some extreme mental anguish in order to betray his old city and venture through the massive quest. As an added bonus, however, those who take part in the betrayal quests will find themselves involved in one of the few quests in the game that puts them in direct contact with Antonia Bayle or Lucan D’Lere.
As far as the total number of quests goes, expect to be impressed. In the short time I played, I had already filled up my quest journal with a dozen or so potential quests.
And finally, the tradeskill system has been revamped a bit. The class tree now has a greater number of subclasses to choose from. This should allow a greater level of interdependency between each of the artisan subclasses. I’d tell you much more about this, but unfortunately, Onyx has all of my notes on the subject .
Now, that we’ve got that pesky bit about “the actual game” out of the way, I can tell you the rest of what was going on. The guys and gals at SOE (I guess the two the average forum goers would be most familiar with would be Moorgard and Faarwolf) did serve us some fantastic Bar-B-Q ribs and chicken out in the SOE parking lot. The ribs were falling off the bone; darn good stuff. These were some of the most fun moments of the trip aside from the actual gameplay; times when we could just sit back and chat it up with both devs and the managers of other community sites.
After we finished up at the SOE offices, we boarded the bus back to the hotel to get ready for a night out on the town. And awaiting us at the bus: a sack full of gear the likes of which hasn’t dropped of an EQLive mob in years. I think the only time I was ever more excited about getting some loot was when Gynok Moltar finally made his way out of the doorway in Befallen.
We headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours and then boarded the bus again to hit up “Dick’s” in downtown San Diego. I don’t know if I can say this clearly enough: everyone on the trip really seemed to enjoy Dick’s. The guys at SOE in particular really loved Dick’s. Onyx, although he might not be the first to admit it, really likes Dick’s. And when the waitress brought out the ceremonial “Giant Penis Hat” for Andy Sites, that pretty much confirmed that we were all a pretty big fan of Dick’s.
Dick’s has some good food and cold beer, but they also let you throw stuff all over the place. For a good hour and a half it was pretty much a contest to see how many times Sean could hit Moorgard, Faarwolf, or Andy in the head with wet paper towels and napkins. Along the way, a few crawdads and onion straws made their way flying across the restaurant, but then the waitress yelled at us and said some pretty darn ugly things, much to the approval of all seated at the table. Thinking back, it was probably a better opportunity than I realized. I mean, how often have you guys wanted to throw stuff at Moorgard?
The entertainment for the night was provided by three pretty interesting young (well, not so) ladies and some band who I never quite paid enough attention to in order to get the name. The girls had one pretty nice dance move which they used over and over and over again for the duration of the evening’s show. It was pretty complex stuff. They’d each move to the left a couple of steps, and then when they got there, they’d move back to the right. It threw a lot of us off at first, but we caught on. In reality, I’d say we were probably trying to figure out how the black dresses they were wearing stayed on, because the middle one (who, mind you, was a few months pregnant at this time), sure seemed to have a hard time keeping that thing up.
You’re probably not going to get an accurate report from any other fansite regarding the last couple of hours of that evening. The last thing I can distinctly remember is Leonai Art cramming some wet paper towels down my shirt, and Moorgard saying something about me having fun raising his kid… very odd stuff. Fortunately, everyone made it back to the hotel in time for me to get some sleep before my flight this morning.
So that’s pretty much it. It was easily one of the best time’s I’ve had, and it’s certainly made everything we do here at EQii.com worthwhile. It’s nice to have a company like SOE that recognizes the work that goes into our community’s sites, and it’s even nicer to have them reward all of us in this way. Hopefully I’ll get a chance in the near future to head back to Fan Faire or E3 and meet up with a lot of these guys again, because they do know how to have a good time.
So here’s a few things to remember if you’ve had a hard time paying attention to this entire long winded article: 1. EverQuest II is shaping up to be a fantastic game, and it looks like all of the concepts they’ve been discussing are being delivered on in a great way. The game already has a level of polish that is missing from most current MMORPGS 2. So far, EQII feels very much like EQLive in terms of atmosphere. 3. Man, those were some good ribs. 4. For those worried about performance issues, fear not; the game was running very well on all of the machines we had access to. 5. Moorgard can be just as evasive in person regarding beta as he is on the forums .
So to all of you fans in this community that allow me to work on a site like this, I thank you. It’s a pleasure to help out. To the folks at SOE, thanks for making a great game that so many people are passionate about, and thanks for taking the time to recognize those of us in the community who are trying to support the game. And to Onyx and Deathstryker, thank you guys so much for giving me the chance to work on your sites. Without EQii.com and the Vault, I would have never been able to take a trip like this. More to come in the next few weeks as Onyx and I continue to follow up on this report with more exclusive screens and info from San Diego, and as the game draws closer and closer to completion.
I’m sure there is much more I need to tell you, and probably much more I should, but right now I’m just too darn tired to think much more. All of the rest of the fansite guys are down in Mexico having a great time, and you’ll hear more from them tomorrow I’m sure. As for me, that’s it for now .
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